What kinda play is acceptable for the tips?

[trackster]

Today I decided to go back to the course that is about 40 miles north of me.  Last time I played there I played the tips (6850 yards, so not terribly long but long enough) and shot an 80 so I figured I would try them again.  I pared the first 3 holes then Bogeyed the next.  Got buried in a bunker on the 5th and long story short took an 8 on a par 3.  Definitely played better as the round progressed but ended up shooting 89 (47-42).  Anyways my score is not really the question I am asking (89 is probably not good enough to play the tips but with 3 doubles and a quintuple, par was my most common score).

We passed two groups today.  On number ten I proceeded to sky my ball about 100 yards right straight into never land (still not completely sure where it went).  I hit 3 off the tee.  I put my drive in the fairway, hit a 7 iron to 100 yards, placed a gap wedge 3 feet from the pin, and tapped in for bogey (it was a par 5).  On hole 12 ( 177 yard par 3) we caught up to another group.  I hit a 5 iron off the tee.  I proceeded to hit a low slicing ball that barely got off the ground that rolled up about 130 yards.  I then chipped to 2 feet and sank the par putt.

If you would have only watched my first shot on these holes you would have though that there is not way that I should be playing the back tees.  But the overall results of the hole were very good.  I've seen many stories on here where people complain that "that golfer" was playing the tips but they didn't hit their drive past the woman's tee box.  Well what if they hit their drive 100 yards, blast there next shot 200 yards, chip to 3 feet and make a par putt?  Is score all that should matter when playing the back tee or should you have the ability to consistently make a good ball strike and other things like that (e.x. long drives, high GIR%)

[Lihu]

Today I decided to go back to the course that is about 40 miles north of me.  Last time I played there I played the tips (6850 yards, so not terribly long but long enough) and shot an 80 so I figured I would try them again.  I pared the first 3 holes then Bogeyed the next.  Got buried in a bunker on the 5th and long story short took an 8 on a par 3.  Definitely played better as the round progressed but ended up shooting 89 (47-42).  Anyways my score is not really the question I am asking (89 is probably not good enough to play the tips but with 3 doubles and a quintuple, par was my most common score). We passed two groups today.  On number ten I proceeded to sky my ball about 100 yards right straight into never land (still not completely sure where it went).  I hit 3 off the tee.  I put my drive in the fairway, hit a 7 iron to 100 yards, placed a gap wedge 3 feet from the pin, and tapped in for bogey (it was a par 5).  On hole 12 ( 177 yard par 3) we caught up to another group.  I hit a 5 iron off the tee.  I proceeded to hit a low slicing ball that barely got off the ground that rolled up about 130 yards.  I then chipped to 2 feet and sank the par putt.  If you would have only watched my first shot on these holes you would have though that there is not way that I should be playing the back tees.  But the overall results of the hole were very good.  I've seen many stories on here where people complain that "that golfer" was playing the tips but they didn't hit their drive past the woman's tee box.  Well what if they hit their drive 100 yards, blast there next shot 200 yards, chip to 3 feet and make a par putt?  Is score all that should matter when playing the back tee or should you have the ability to consistently make a good ball strike and other things like that (e.x. long drives, high GIR%)

Seems like your handicap warrants hitting from where ever you like. Tuffluck started a thread regarding this. There are many responses telling him he was crazy, but in the end his handicap spoke for itself. He seems to be 10 strokes better than when he started that thread. It was entitled something like "...refuse to tee it forward..."

[colin007]

People tend to remember the things that stand out. If you had striped your tee shots, that's what the observers would have expected given the tees you played from and not given it another thought. For me, I play from the whites because although I hit it a lot farther than most, I can also hit it off the planet in either direction. So I would say distance plus accuracy = playing from the tips.

[Aquaguru]

One shouldn't judge based off of one tee shot that you make.  Like you said you could have hit a drive 100 yards and still par the hole.  I have done this a couple of times, things happen its golf.  I would say however if you consistently do not reach the fairway (more than 3 times) or are taking woods off the par 3's then you need to play up.  I think the clubs you use on the par 3's are a good indicator of what tees you should play.  You should be able to hit a mid to long iron into 3 out of 4 greens (7,6,5).  There might be a par 3 that requires a hybrid of some sort and thats ok.

[Slice of Life]

I've shot high 90s/low 100s from the tips. Play what you want as long as you aren't holding anyone up.

80s from the tips is probably better than 90% of people playing the tees in front of it at any given public course.

[geauxforbroke]

Take a look at the slope rating from the tips. Sometimes, it's not significantly harder than from the next tees up. For example, a course that I played a lot in high school was 6842 yards from the tip with a slope rating of 145. The next tees up play 6449 with a slope of 141. Even though the back tees are "harder", I typically shoot about 2-3 strokes better from the back tees, probably because playing from shorter tees brings more trouble into play (fairway bunkers, water, etc.) that wouldn't be in play from the tips.

My point with all this is to judge whether you should be playing the tips by the slope rating, not just the yardage.

[LuciusWooding]

As long as you play acceptably fast and don't lose more than a sleeve or so of balls, I won't bat an eyelash. As long as you demonstrate some kind of course management and courtesy, I respect your decision to play from the tips.

I'll make fun of you behind your back though whenever you hit a bad shot if I'm playing behind you. I don't have time to keep track of your scores from the hole behind you but your pace of play is the only factor I'm worried about. If you're able to score decently, congratulations. Personally I can handle about any set of tees so the slope and rating would help more than the yardage would hurt in most cases. It helps on Par 5s but rarely matters much otherwise on a challenging course.

The only time I'd mention anything would be if you're taking forever or if you were like 15 and had a truly terrible swing but felt the need to play the tips because you're clueless about etiquette. If I see you hit a driver solid that only goes 210 yards but you still play from the longest tees maybe I'd mention it if you were in the same group. Otherwise I wouldn't try to rob others of their challenge. It would take a lot for me to speak up.

On a related note, the most annoying thing that ever happened to me on a golf course was when someone outside my group and not affiliated with the USGA, R&A;, PGA, or the course, decided to charitably inform me that the hole I was playing was actually a (really really short) par 4, because I was preparing to hit a hybrid and waiting for the green to clear and he assumed I must therefore be illiterate because one obviously must hit driver on anything other than a par 3, even if said par 4 is around 240 yards. They hadn't seen me hit a shot that day. I made a crappy swing but I put it in the greenside bunker, demonstrating I at least had the ability to reach, and they still brought it up again on the other driveable par 4 when I was hitting a 3 wood and got it to the right of the green.

I'm not hitting a 7 iron off the tee to lay up just to walk down the fairway a minute early, when I can give myself a rare eagle putt on a course with few par 5s. If that's not how you prefer to play it, then kindly spend your time waiting on the tee behind me by pulling your head out of your ass. Contemplate how you might play it if you had the length to realistically reach it off the tee, and take into account that I often still only make par due to my bad putting. I score about a full stroke better on those 2 holes when I go for it, oddly enough, and all my birdies are from trying to reach. I've also never gotten a birdie from following the advice or club selection of my partners or anyone else for that matter.

The point is, I think we're all adults and we don't need to be given advice on our club selection or what tees we play in the middle of the freaking round, no matter what kind of round we're having. Even if it's made with the most helpful intentions, I don't want your advice unless you're the guy carrying my bag or I chose to pay you for lessons. I try to give others the same courtesy. If your way of playing the hole is so great, I'll see it for myself and copy it.

[Ernest Jones]

My opinion, and that's all it is so take it FWIW, if you are not threatening par or close to it from the the white tees there is really no reason to move back to the tips. I have a buddy who likes to play from the tips because he, "likes the extra challenge," but he has never broken 90 so I suspect that the white tees are offering him all the challenge (and more) that he can handle...

[Slice of Life]

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

My opinion, and that's all it is so take it FWIW, if you are not threatening par or close to it from the the white tees there is really no reason to move back to the tips. I have a buddy who likes to play from the tips because he, "likes the extra challenge," but he has never broken 90 so I suspect that the white tees are offering him all the challenge (and more) that he can handle...

lol

I agree, but I'll play from the tips if it's a super easy course. Mallard Creek around me is 69.9/106 and only 6622 yards from the furthest tees.

[GaijinGolfer]

You should play whatever yardage fits your game.  If you are hitting wedges and short irons into greens all the time and you want the challenge, by all means play from the tips.

Id contend though that 99% of the people who play from the tips due so out of ego, not because thats the yardage that fits their games.  I see plenty of people out there playing from the tips who can barely get their drives past the red tees, yet they hit the 1 drive per round that is 250 yards, so they think they should be playing from the tips.

I recently moved from the whites to the reds because I was struggling and not playing well and Im having more fun than ever.  Ive told myself that when I break par from the reds, then and only then will I have earned the right to move back to the whites.

[JaapB]

I think handicap has nothing to do with white, yellow or red tees, it is all about how far you normally could hit your first shot. If I look at myself i always play from yellow while a lot of the club say you should play from red with the handicap i have.

If i hit my 3 wood good i hit around 170 meter, which isn't that far but hey im only playing for 3 months now so im happy with it for now.

If i compare a red and yellow tee with my current handicap I get 36 playing handicap if i play from yellow while i get 29 if i play from red. If i only look at the par 3 for example i get on 3 par 3 holes 1 stroke less if i play from yellow, while if i play from red i need to use a club or 2 less to hit the green, so basicly i just hurt myself if i play from red.

If i then look at the par 5 i also get on 2 par 5 1 stroke less while difference between red and yellow tee is 60 meter on both. The 60 meter doesn't make the difference and if i hit the ball bad it hurts me more if i play from red cause you have 1 stroke less compared with yellow.

To make it short if i hit the ball bad it, it probably hurts me more if i play from red as you have 9 strokes less compared to yellow tee. You could say that if  you miss the fairway a lot you should play from a tee futher forward is not the best advice to be honest. If i hit my ball both times 150 meter for example if they both go outside of the fairway the difference on most holes is somewhere between 30 and 60 meters which isn't a lot and simply means i need to hit the third shot with a different club.

[boogielicious]

Depends on the course as folks above have stated.  My league has a rule that the "A" flight has to play from the tips, which I am not too happy about.  On some of the holes the tees have a 50 yard difference.  This make all of the par 5s not reachable for me.  I only average 220 or so from the tee with driver.  On some par 4s, I am using driver off the tee where I would be using a 3 or 4 iron to reach the same spot.

Funny thing is the other A flight players shouldn't be playing from the tips either.

[rustyredcab]

Originally Posted by trackster

Today I decided to go back to the course that is about 40 miles north of me.  Last time I played there I played the tips (6850 yards, so not terribly long but long enough) and shot an 80 so I figured I would try them again.  I pared the first 3 holes then Bogeyed the next.  Got buried in a bunker on the 5th and long story short took an 8 on a par 3.  Definitely played better as the round progressed but ended up shooting 89 (47-42).  Anyways my score is not really the question I am asking (89 is probably not good enough to play the tips but with 3 doubles and a quintuple, par was my most common score).

We passed two groups today.  ...

Guys who play the wrong tees can really slow things down. Sounds like you were playing fast enough to pass groups so, I'd so if you want to play the tips, have at it.

On my home course, the par 3's play very long from the tips (5 par 3's and the shortest one is 198). Lots of tall grass around the greens. I HATE being behind a group that is playing the tips, has no business being there, and is searching for balls on every par three. If the tees you choose slow play for those behind you, you are on the wrong tees IMO.

[rkim291968]

One of my courses has recommendation on what tee to use based on handicap (0 - 5 = back tee, 5 - 15 = mid tee, etc) which many golfers ignore.  They paid good money for the round so that may be ok.  But I hate to see players with mid to high handicap who insist on playing from the back tee on a busy day .  Playing from back tee put pressure on their drives which causes more OBs, lost balls, etc..   Instead of taking 3 - 4 shots to get on green, they are taking 5 - 6, looking for their balls in between, and before they know it, they are holding up the back groups.   Rounds become a 5+ hour event instead of 3.5 - 4 hour it should take.

[colin007]

One of my courses has recommendation on what tee to use based on handicap (0 - 5 = back tee, 5 - 15 = mid tee, etc) which many golfers ignore.  They paid good money for the round so that may be ok.  But I hate to see players with mid to high handicap who insist on playing from the back tee on a busy day .  Playing from back tee put pressure on their drives which causes more OBs, lost balls, etc..   Instead of taking 3 - 4 shots to get on green, they are taking 5 - 6, looking for their balls in between, and before they know it, they are holding up the back groups.   Rounds become a 5+ hour event instead of 3.5 - 4 hour it should take.

That means that the rangers aren't doing their jobs. They are well within their job description to tell those hacks to move up a set of tees.

[rkim291968]

Originally Posted by colin007

That means that the rangers aren't doing their jobs. They are well within their job description to tell those hacks to move up a set of tees.

Well, in public courses here in my part of California, most marshals are retired volunteers.   Their pay is that they get a free round and other course privileges.   Most of them don't do much other than driving their cart around.  Some are too busy looking for lost balls!   It's rare if anyone is fixing divots, asking players to pick up pace, etc..   I will occasionally call the office to send a marshal out to control the pace of slower group  in front.

[colin007]

Agreed. It's much the same near me. The rangers are basically worthless, but if they did their jobs telling people to move up would be one of them...

[bkuehn1952]

If one needs to have one of their better rounds to shoot 80+, why not move up a tee?  The one common measuring stick is "par" and if one's game doesn't come close to par, maybe playing a lesser tee makes sense.